Fourteen faces in varying shades of apprehension stared at her in shock.
The boy in orange sat near the worktable. A woman, the only person in the room with light brown hair instead of black, had a datapad connected by a jury-rigged splice cable to electronic handcuffs on his wrists, also bright orange. Soft red lights on matching restraints around his ankles blinked.
Nina’s heart sank when she made eye contact with him.
“She feels sorry for us,” said the boy in orange.
“Idiot,” snapped Ramon. “Don’t use psionics on her.”
The boy gave him a challenging stare. “You said don’t read her mind. I didn’t go into her head. She’s radiating.”
Nina hurried over to him. “I don’t think an empath has to worry about my implant, but I wouldn’t try making me feel different.” She grumbled. “It’s disgraceful how they treat you here.”
“Rafael is lucky we found him before they executed him,” said the woman holding the datapad. “He’s only been here a few hours.”
Rafael gave her the saddest wide-eyed ‘please don’t hurt me’ stare imaginable. His round face added to the effect, making him seem more like six than his likely age of about ten. “I was in jail for five months. I kept making them feel sorry for me when they wanted to shoot me.”
“Let me help get those binders off.” Nina made sure she had space, and made a fist with her right hand. Two Nano blades extended out from her knuckles and locked at twelve-inches.
“Whoa… that’s awesome!” Rafael bounced in his seat.
“Hold still. These are extremely sharp.” She grasped his arm gently, and held it up to get an angle on the plastisteel cuff.
“I know Nano.” He froze.
After some careful blade work freed him, she retracted her claws.
“Well, that’s a lot faster than my way.” The woman chuckled. “I’m Patricia. The security they put on those things, it’s like they expected a ten-year-old to tear them apart with his bare hands.”
Rafael stood, unzipped the jumpsuit, and ripped it off like it had been made out of turds. Though his face turned bright red, he seemed to prefer being naked. He held it out to her. “They can find this. There is a tracker.”
“We know.” Patricia smiled. “It’s already burned out. They did that before they brought you here.”
Rafael kept holding the wadded fluorescent orange cloth out to her. “Okay. I still don’t want to wear it. They will shoot me if they see it.”
“Rafael,” yelled a man across the room. When the boy turned to look, the man waved a shirt at him. “This will do for now.”
The boy darted over and practically dove into a blue shirt that hung down to his knees.
“Well,” said Pedro, walking up behind Nina. “This is our group.”
José Mendoza, the man she recognized from her intelligence packet, emerged from the rear hall. Seconds later, a brief yellow flash lit up the camp toilet. He ruffled Rafael’s hair on the way by, and approached Nina. “It is good to meet you.”
“This is José. He’s in charge.” Pedro gestured at him.
“Mr. Mendoza.” Nina nodded in greeting. “So, you’ve got twelve adults. Aside from yourself, Francisco Rios, Roberto Araya, Pedro, and Patricia, who all have either DMS or CMO training… how many are going to be part of the first phase?”
José blinked at her. “You know our people already?”
“I had a briefing with some faces and names. Not all. Only people who were in their system.”
“Ahh.” José nodded. “Yes. That is why they are out here in the middle of nowhere. All of us are too well known to risk entering a major city. At least here, the worry of the north keeps a large presence of CMO away.”
Her eyebrows slid together. “Is that going to be a problem going near Hermosillo? The objective isn’t within the city limits… do you have a map?”
“No. It’s not a major city. Mostly commoners living in one-room pods who go off to work the hydro farms each day.” José crossed the room to a small desk among the cots. He tapped at a datapad until it displayed a holographic map of the area.
Nina pointed to a spot 14.2 miles northwest of Hermosillo. “That’s where I need to go.”
“Estación Salamanca. It’s a small village near a solar generating facility.” José waved his hand about as he spoke. “Almost everyone who lives there works for VMS, uhh, Verde Mundial Solar.”
“So Green World owns that little town.” She remembered them as having a fair amount of technology for the ACC, but besieged by frequent physical attacks from competing energy corporations, most notably Berlin Nuclear. “That makes sense. An operation like I’m hunting would need a steady supply of power. Plus, this place looks like the ass end of nowhere. Anyone scanning satellite reconnaissance data wouldn’t think it anything but a burro’s bathroom.”
Chuckles filtered among the resistance.
“We have offered any assistance we can provide in exchange for help escaping to the UCF,” said Pedro.
José grinned. “Yes. Yes. Within reason of our capabilities of course. Except for the children, we are all willing to fight.”
“I will help.” A wisp of a little girl in a tattered yellow dress, lime green sneakers, and a bit of rope tied around her waist for a belt to hold up a pouch approached. “I’m Gabriella Morales.”
Nina crouched. “That’s very brave of you, sweetie, but I don’t want you to get hurt. This is dangerous.”
“I know it is dangerous. They shot my parents.” She clenched her hands into fists at her sides. Tears traced clean lines in the dust on her cheeks. “I want them to die. I made the man who killed my father kill the other soldiers.” Her face scrunched with an annoyed scowl. “I couldn’t make him kill himself, but I told him to go kill his boss.”
“You’re a suggestive?”
Gabriella nodded. “Yes, but I promise not to use it on anyone who doesn’t deserve it. They told me the UCF is afraid of suggestives, but I promise I’ll be good.”
Nina sighed. “As astoundingly useful as that could be, I am not bringing a little child into a gunfight.”
“I’m not little; I’m eight.” She looked down. “I understand. I don’t want to get shot, but I can do stuff like make them open the door.”
Nina patted her on the shoulder. “I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you. Stay here and stay safe. Use your power to protect everyone who isn’t going to fight.”
Gabriella kicked at the dirt floor. “Okay. I’ll be here if you change your mind.” She trudged over to a cot with a few pathetic stuffed animals and a pink child’s datapad.
Most of the adults either tried to hold back grins or looked sorrowful.
Nina suppressed the urge to scowl. Almost makes war feel justified. She let off a silent sigh. That’ll make it worse. I’ll have to settle for helping these people for the moment. “So what have we got?”
José gestured around the room. “Myself, Pedro, Patricia, Leticia, Francisco, Javier, Roberto, and Silvia… plus Maria and Adriana―they’re topside.”
“Bikes.”
He nodded. “Aye. I’d prefer not to bring any of the psionics above ground in case they are recognized. Josefina is telekinetic, but if anyone sees her using her power… even commoners, they may try to kill her.”
A young woman sitting cross-legged on a cot looked up from a NetMini screen. She seemed fearful and shy, and appeared to be around eighteen. “Did you call me, José?”
“No, no…” He smiled at her. “Just telling our friend here I would prefer to keep you safe.”
Nina tapped her foot while thinking. “So, ten people at most, but that would leave your compound lightly defended. I have a geotag on the location of the facility, but we weren’t able to get a good look at it from satellite. The site contained anywhere from five and fourteen heat signatures, and didn’t give off the kind of electromagnetic radiance I’d expect from a place full of computer equipment.”
“How sure are you this is the place?” asked Pedro.
“No doubt at all.” Nina brought up the data trace Net Ops sent over, and watched the gold threads all converge on a point about twenty miles east-southeast from where she stood. “My guess is that they’ve got the guts of their operation underground, so we could be walking into almost anything.”
José rubbed his chin, making a series of Hmm sounds.
“The biggest help you and your people can be for me is eyes and ears. One or two go in with me, the rest watch the area from the outside and send warning if anything unexpected shows up.” Nina looked among the group. “It’s a data center, and they’re relying on being hard to find. We’ve been watching the place since we’ve identified it. There’s been no activity suggesting a significant military presence here.”
“All right.” José waved at Javier and a fortyish looking man with a little grey creeping into his hair, Roberto. “The three of us will go with you. Maria, Adriana, and Silvia will watch from outside.”
Pedro stepped toward José. “But―”
“I need you to stay here in case I don’t come back. It would be unwise for us both to go.” José shifted his gaze to Nina. “How soon do you want to do this?”
Nina frowned at the pitiful living conditions. “Faster I’m done, the faster your people can get out of here. How about now?”
momentary calm settled over the ruined building. Neither Noriko nor any of the foreigners wasted bullets on rubble. She seemed to be watching the ground floor via her rifle’s optics, without exposing herself. Masaru tried not to move his right arm. Even air blowing over the burned spots hurt. Sweat ran in beads down his face and back, but still he kept the rifle pointed at the doorway. He held a reasonable degree of certainty that he hadn’t inflicted any permanent neural damage to himself yet, but if he didn’t give his system time to rest from using his speedware, he’d get a talking to about spending a few million credits on surgery that could’ve been avoided.
They will see reason. It is superior to death.
He flicked his thumb at the grip, a nervous habit borne of waiting.
A voice yelled in horrible Japanese, with a German accent. “I care don’t what do you right now. Fancy new toys, you pick up and come fast.” Pause. “Why? You not ask why. If you want more toys, you do as ask. We attacked.”
Masaru snickered.
“All those expensive weapons,” yelled Noriko, “but you can’t buy a decent Japanese chip?” Her voice repeated the words in German from speakers on her helmet.
“Jemand töte dieses verdammte schlampe schon!” shouted a different man. A second later, ‘someone kill this slut already’ appeared in text at the underside of Masaru’s vision.
Noriko let off a haughty laugh. “Seit neun Minuten hast du versucht diese Schlampe zu töten, und ich bin immer noch hier.” She fired two rapid shots, still only her rifle peeking around the corner.
A heavy groan preceded the thump of a body hitting the ground. A fusillade of incoming fire sprayed the area around her with concrete dust. She yanked her rifle back to safety.
Masaru glanced at her. “Whatever you said, I don’t think they liked it.”
She laughed, despite cowering against the wall. “I said, ‘you’ve been trying to kill this bitch for nine minutes, and I’m still here.’ One got mad and popped up. I shot him in the face.”
Engine whine in the distance reached the edge of Masaru’s perception. A momentary daydream of medical care, a grand meal, and a long, hot bath, distracted him with joy… until Shuji’s death fell on him like a blanket of lead.
“We shall be victorious soon.” Masaru snapped his attention back to the door as footsteps scuffed in the hall.
Noriko chuckled once the barrage ceased. “I came in here expecting to die. It is okay, Moto-san. I know how this will end.”
“Abe-san.” He sighted over the rifle. “If we are to die, there is something I must tell you, but I do not think we shall die today.”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Masaru answered the incoming vid call by mental command. His NetMini linked to his headware over a wireless link, and the face of a man about his age appeared surrounded by the interior of a thick, padded helmet. Amber light bathed his face, and the reflections of a HUD readout shone from his eyes.
「Kurotai-sama. It is an honor to speak with you. I am Himura Ryozo. We are near. What is the situation inside the building?」
Masaru smiled. 「I am on the third floor with Sergeant Abe Noriko of the JSDF. All hostiles are on the ground level, except for one fool sneaking up the stairs. There may be an unknown number of Etamura approaching from an unknown direction.」
Noriko raised her rifle to peer around the wall again. She gasped and fired a barrage of automatic fire. Men screamed in alarm as ricochets pinged and whizzed.
「Understood Kurotai-sama. Six seconds.」
The engine whine outside grew louder.
Noriko lifted her head, staring around at the walls. “Do you hear that? It sounds like ion thrusters, but too small to be military.”
“They are not military.”
Her armor scraped on the concrete as she turned to look at him. “Who are―?”
The wall behind them burst in a rain of debris. An eight-foot tall figure in gloss black armor made to resemble an ancient samurai landed in the center of the room. Two points of blue light glowed from the bottom of an ion-thruster pod with long, narrow wings mounted to its back. The glow faded as the wings folded down. He aimed a boxy black rifle at the door Masaru had been covering, which connected via a metal-wrapped cable to the thrust pack. He carried a katana as well, though it looked laughably small in comparison to the giant samurai. A dark gold Kurotai logo, a K inside a circle, adorned the left pectoral plate of the armor.
He turned his helmet toward them; the faceplate bore an exaggerated samurai frown with Oni fangs, and an opaque black visor.
“Look out!” shouted Noriko, for the first time since he’d seen her, sounding frightened. She started to aim her rifle at it, but Masaru grabbed it and pushed it down. “What is that monstrosity!?”
“Dragon Chitin Mark Three. Powered armor.” He wagged his eyebrow at her. “We manufacture those.”
The man bowed with a nod to Masaru before aiming his four-foot-long rifle at the wall. A beam of red laser light connected the weapon to the concrete, where a glowing orange hole formed in a quarter second. Masaru had never seen concrete melt before. A man screamed from the stairwell. More loud crashes of rubble echoed from the ground floor, soon followed by men screaming and the repetitive hum of lasers. Gunfire raged; high-pitched pings of bullets striking concrete mixed with dull plastic clacks of bullets bouncing off powered armor.
The man in the room with them enlarged the doorway on his way out to join the fight on the ground floor, his armor tearing down the old wall like so much paper. Masaru relaxed. Noriko moved to leap to her feet, but he put his hand on her shoulder and held her back.
“You have done enough. Rest. Let my associates work.”
A body flew up past the hole in the floor and hit the wall hard enough to leave a red mark before falling out of sight.
“38 Lauf! Zurückfallen!” shouted a man.
“Nein!” Someone fired full auto from a ballistic weapon. “39 Kein Rückzug! Kein―”
The whoosh of ion thrusters mixed with the screech of a vibro-katana, and the man’s scream cut out with a wet gurgle. Angry shouts became panicked screams. One long wail of fear cut off with a heavy whump and a wheeze. Masaru closed his eyes and savored the mental image of a power armor suit catching someone out of a sprint with a fist in the chest. The man’s spine probably broke on impact.
In under a minute, the sickening crunch of breaking bones, the screech of vibro-katanas, and the rapport of guns ceased.
“So, what was it you wanted to tell me when we were about to die?” Noriko pushed her visor up, a wry smile on her face.
“My name is not Moto Masaru.”
He stood and spent a moment dusting off what remained of his suit. “I am Kurotai Masaru, second son of Kurotai Hideo.”
Her mouth hung open.
“I offer my most sincere apologies. Given our circumstances, I initially did not want you concerned with my station.” He offered her a hand. “As I came to know you, and learned that you, Abe Noriko, are not the sort of woman who would allow such things to interfere with more practical matters such as survival, I did not want you to think less of me for being who I am.”
She squinted at him for a few seconds, but accepted his hand. “I’m not about to bow at you or anything.”
“I like that about you.” Masaru smiled and pulled her standing.
Noriko gave him a playful look of annoyance. “Normally, I don’t trust people who aren’t honest.”
He feigned a pout.
She flicked bits of concrete off her armor. “I’ll think about making an exception.”
“Kurotai-sama,” said Ryozo Himura over a loudspeaker. “The area is… Apologies, Kurotai-sama. We have Etamura approaching. A small matter.”
Masaru took Noriko’s hand and led her to the hall and down the stairs. They emerged on the ground floor amid the heavy tromping of Dragon Chitin migrating out to the street. Lasers lit the sides of the building crimson in a near-continuous barrage. He released her hand as he neared the shipment of nanobots, and brought his rifle to bear in case anything somehow managed to make it past the Kurotai strike team, six of whom stood in a firing line less than twenty meters away outside. Four samurai-shaped holes in the wall at varying elevations gave away where they’d entered.
A loud boom and a flash of heat and orange light came from the street. Masaru dove for cover behind the stacked boxes. Noriko raised an arm to shield her eyes.
“And you said it was stupid to bring this,” yelled a man. “I―”
The thrum of multiple lasers silenced him.
The Harmony Paradox (Virtual Immortality Book 2) Page 64
